ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
The document that set forth the terms under which the original thirteen states agreed to participate in a centralized form of government, in addition to their self-rule, and that was in effect from March 1, 1781, to March 4, 1789, prior to the adoption of the Constitution.
The Articles of Confederation served as the first constitution of the newly formed United States. As it was originally drafted in 1776, the document provided for a strong central government. However, by the time it was ratified in 1781, advocates of STATES’ RIGHTS had greatly weakened its provisions. Many of these advocates feared a centralization of power and wished to preserve a great degree of independence and sovereignty for each state. Accordingly, the Articles as they were ratified provided only for a “firm league of friendship,” in which, according to article II of the document, “[e]ach State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence.”
The Articles included provisions for military
cooperation between the states, freedom of
travel, EXTRADITION of criminal suspects, and
equal PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES for citizens.
They also created a national legislature called
the Congress. Each state had one vote in this
body, that vote to be determined by a delegation
of from two to seven representatives. The Arti-
cles called for Congress to conduct foreign rela-
tions, maintain a national army and navy,
establish and maintain a postal service, and per-
form a number of other duties. The Articles did
not create, as the Constitution later did, execu-
tive and judicial branches of government.
The Congress created by the Articles was
successful on a number of fronts. In 1783, it
negotiated with Great Britain a peace treaty that
officially ended the Revolutionary War; it
arranged to pay war debts; and it passed the
NORTHWEST ORDINANCE,which allowed for set-
tlement and statehood in new regions in the
western part of the United States. However, with time, it became apparent that the Articles had created an unsatisfactory union of the states,
chiefly because they established a weak central
government. For example, under the Articles of
Confederation, Congress did not have the power
to tax or to effectively regulate commerce. The
resulting national government did not prove
competent at such tasks as raising a military or
creating a stable currency. In addition, because
amendments to the Articles required a unanimous
vote of all thirteen states, the Articles
proved to be too inflexible to last.
A series of incidents in the 1780s made it
clear to many early U.S. leaders that the Articles
of Confederation would not serve as an effective
constitution. Among these incidents was
SHAYS’S REBELLION, in 1786–87, an insurrection
in which economically depressed farmers
demanded debt relief and closed courts of law in
western Massachusetts. The Congress of the
Confederation was not able to raise a force to
respond to this civil unrest, which was later put
down by a state militia. GEORGE WASHINGTON
and other leaders perceived this as a grievous
failure. Therefore, when a constitutional convention
assembled in 1787 to amend the Articles,
it quickly decided to abandon them
altogether in favor of a new constitution. By
June 21, 1788, nine states had ratified the new
U.S. Constitution and made it effective. It has
survived as the basis of U.S. government for over
two hundred years.
FURTHER READINGS
Harrigan, John J. 1984. Politics and the American Future.
Reading,Mass.: Addison-Wesley.
Kesavan, Vasan. 2002. “When Did the Articles of Confederation
Cease to Be Law? Notre Dame Law Review 78
(December): 35–82.
Levy, Michael B. 1982. Political Thought in America: An
Anthology. Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press.
CROSS-REFERENCES
“Articles of Confederation” (Appendix, Primary Document);
Constitution; Constitution of the United States; Federalism;
Shays’s Rebellion;Washington, George.
